The progressive writers movement did not remain as a ’literary
club’, but became a movement that stirred the soul of the ordinary man reading
literature in Hindi and Urdu. It expressed the concerns of the ordinary man
through literature.

From this platform , Syed Sajjad Zaheer moved ahead and worked
closely With Pablo Neruda , Nazim Hikmet and Faiz Ahmed
Faiz under the Banner of AAWA (Afro Asian writers Association).

Born at Lucknow in an aristocratic
and educated family of former Oudh state , Sajjad
Zaheer ‘s father, Sir Syed Wazir Hassan was a
former chief Justice of Oudh court.And Syed Sajjad Zaheer’s personality has many dimension that I came to
know only after reading his Biography . I quote
something for readers .

Banney
Bhai went to Oxford in 1927 , studied law to become a Barrister and returned to India in 1935 . It was only
at Oxford that he was driven towards Marxism. At Oxford he once posed a
question to George Bernard Shaw who had come to deliver a speech . Shaw’s
speech was mainly about his impressions of the Soviet Union, which he had
visited a few months earlier. When the president invited questions, Zaheer
asked Shaw: “Mr Shaw, you have told us about what you saw in the Soviet Union
and how you were impressed by the communist society there. If this is your
belief, why don’t you work for a communist revolution in England and why don’t
you join the Communist Party of Great Britain?” Shaw replied: “Young man, you
ask me why I don’t join the Communist Party of Great Britain? I want the
Communist Party of Great Britain to join me.”

In India , he came under the spell of Gandhi ji’s freedom movement and joined Congress party and participated in many agitations . Banney Bhai wore khadi clothes , stopped eating meat and
slept on floor . In an interview, Sajjad
Zaheer informs as
under .

“I was not the only communist who joined the
Congress at that time. With me were Dr Mohammed Ashraf, Dr Z.A. Ahmed,
Mahmuduzzafar Khan and some other people. All these people had taken their
degrees in England and had come back. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was very proud of
our group and he introduced us to Gandhiji and to Sardar Patel saying, "
People say that Muslims are not coming in the Congress. Here is this brilliant
group of young Muslims which went to England and took degrees there and had
come back and joined the Congress." Anyhow, I was saying that this was the
time when Panditji started his Mass Contact Movement and from the communist
side, we too, were trying to develop the Congress as a sort of united national
front of all the anti-imperialist elements in this country. The socialist band
inside the Congress, apart from the communists, Jayaprakash Narayan, Minoo
Masani, Rammanohar Lohia and others, were also in the same category of people
who were thinking of new ways and means of achieving our independence ”

Sajjad
Zaheer married a budding urdu writer Razia in 1938. Razia was also from an
educated and progressive family of UP. Imprisoned in 1939 for two years
, Sajjad Zaheer Co- founded of CPI immediately after his release . After
the Partition of the country , CPI advised him to move to Pakistan to organize
communist Party of Pakistan along with
Faiz Ahmed Faiz .Remaining underground
for three long years, he travelled to the different cities meeting trade
unionists, intellectuals, students and workers. But ultimately was arrested and
implicated in the Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case along with poet Faiz Ahmed
Faiz. He was tried for sedition and awarded Life imprisonment .It
was only through Pandit Nehru’s intervention and international pressure that he was released
on parole .His family faced many odds
and financial difficulties in
India during his absence . He returned
to India in 1955 , settled with his family and never went to Pakistan thereafter . From
1956 to 1973, he worked intensely for IPTA, PWAI and for the creation of a
forum for Asian and African writers against imperialism. He revived the PWAI and was elected secretary of the India chapter
of AAWA (Afro-Asian Writers Association ). He also edited party Newspaper
Quami Jung and weekly Awami Daur (People’s Era) that was to later become Hayat
(Life). His popularity soon grew all around and writers of various countries
invited him. He was among the key figures who mobilised writers against US
atrocities in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. In collaboration with Mulk Raj Anand,
he organized the first Asian writers conference .He died of a heart attack in
kazakhastan while attending Afro Asian
writers conference.

( With Faiz Ahmed Faiz )

His
short stories collection Angaaray was
banned by British Government in 1932 immediately after it was published. He
wrote Gazals , poems and plays .His prominent woks include London Ki Ek Raat- a
novel, Roshnai a collection of essays on
progressive writing and the progressive writers movement, Zikre Hafiz- A research based book on Persian poet Hafiz and
Pighla Nilam-A collection of his poetry. He also translated OTHELLO , GORA
and PROPHET to urdu.

Najma
, Noor , Nadira and Naseem are his four brilliant and talented daughters .Najma
married Prof. Ali Baquer ( Died 2007 )
from Hyderbad .Najma was
a professor of Biochemistry at JNU New Delhi. Ali Baquer had worked at the
universities of Oxford and London .He has been member of various high-level
committees set up by the Planning Commission of India, Doordarshan, IGNOU and
other national and international agencies dealing with education, health,
mental health, management and disability issues.

Noor
is a well known Researcher , journalist,
kathak dancer and Writer . Her Hindi
Novel “Mere Hissey ki Roshnaai” is a treat to read . Her other Books are Surkh Karwan ke Humsafar,
a travelogue of Pakistan, Bad Uraiyya, a novel, and My God is a Woman. She
married Amitava Dasgupta (1947-2010) – a Marxist and a Theatre personality (founder-director of
Brechtian Mirror).

Nadira,
A graduate from NSD is a well known name
in Indian theatre ( EKJUTE ) and is
married to Actor Raj Babbar. Naseem
now Dr Naseem Bhatia ( Married
Historian Prof. Vinod Bhatia ) worked as joint secretary of UGC and later
Vice Chancellor of Jodhpur University.

Adds
Dr Naseem Bhatia ,

"The
family income was paltry. Father received Rs 45 as remuneration for being the
editor. Grandfather used to send Rs 200 every month and that’s the way the
family expenses were met which included the hospitality of the guests, mostly
poets who often stayed overnight in our
tiny flat."

Adds
Nadira Babbar

“Not
even once, did my parents talk to us about religion. The first time that
someone told us we were Muslims was at school.
Writers, activists, theatre persons were
walking in and out of our house all through the day, with the atmosphere
abuzz with art and literature. From anti-nuclear protests to peace marches, to poets'
meets and seminars, our house was the
rehearsal room for a range of things. We were fortunate to have parents like
them. They gave us such a rich legacy of values and ideals, and without ever
making us conscious of it. It was a natural part of our upbringing; much later
in our lives, when we were on our own, slowly these things moved up to the
surface ”

Banney
Bhai’s wife Razia Sajjad Zaheer (
1917-1979 ) was also from a Nationalist
Muslim family . She has written many novels and short stories . Razia made name
as one who perfected her craft in the language of tension and her stories,
namely "Amar Jyot", "Ravan Jal Gaya", "Mojja" and
"Allah De Banda Lo" were much read in the 60s and 70s. Her short story
NEECH ( lowborn ) comes to my mind at the moment especially the Characters
of Shyamali and Ramavtar she created for this story. She taught at
Karamat Hussain college and wrote Novels and short stories . She was also associated
with PWAI .

Till
the end Banney Bhai remained a dedicated
comrade always at the call of the party and rose to the rank of being an
external member of the CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union).

I
end this brief post on Syed Sajjad Zaheer with
lines from a poem of
Kurdish poet Sherko Bekas …